The council added excessive summons or liability order costs

When a magistrates' court makes a council tax liability order, the sum may include the unpaid council tax and only the costs that were reasonably incurred by the billing authority in obtaining the order.^[1]

The council is not entitled to turn the liability-order costs figure into a penalty, a profit centre, or a contribution to the general cost of administering council tax. There must be a sufficient causal connection between the sum claimed and the process of obtaining the liability order.^[2]

In R (Nicolson) v Tottenham Magistrates, the High Court held that the magistrates must have enough information to make a proper judicial determination that the costs were actually incurred, were incurred in obtaining the order, and were reasonable. The taxpayer was also plainly entitled to know how the figure had been calculated.^[2]

Ask the council for an itemised calculation of the summons and liability-order costs, the categories of expenditure included, the number of cases over which shared costs were apportioned, and the material supplied to the magistrates in support of the amount. If the hearing has not yet taken place, raise the objection before the liability order and costs are made.

If the liability order has already been made, do not simply deduct the disputed costs from what you owe. The route for challenging a magistrates' court decision may involve an application by way of case stated or judicial review and is time-sensitive.^[3] If the council accepts that the liability order should not have been made, it has a separate statutory power to ask the magistrates' court to quash it.^[4]

A dispute about the council's liability-order costs is different from a dispute about an enforcement agent's statutory fees. Bailiff fee disputes are governed by the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 and may be assessed under Civil Procedure Rule 84.16.^[5]

^{[1] Regulation 34(7) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
[2] R (Nicolson) v Tottenham Magistrates & Anor [2015] EWHC 1252 (Admin), in particular paragraphs 34-36 and 46-54
[3] Section 111 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980
[4] Regulation 36A of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992
[5] Civil Procedure Rule 84.16}